When a vibrating body is mounted on a support body, it is often desired to control or minimise the transmission of vibration from the vibrating body to the support body. It is known to reduce the transmission of vibration passively by providing vibration isolators of various forms between the two bodies. It is also known to reduce vibration actively, often in conjunction with the use of passive isolators.
In copending International Patent Application No PCT/GB87/00902, publication no. WO/88/05506 there is described an arrangement for active vibration control in which an intermediate body is mounted between the vibrating body and the support body. The vibration of the intermediate body is sensed and in response thereto controlling forces are applied to the intermediate body by inertial shakers mounted thereon to minimise the vibrations induced by the vibrating body. Whilst such a vibration mount operates satisfactorily, it has been found that for some applications such a mount may be undesirably large and/or heavy.